Cooking Nihongo Style Part 2

So, another teacher that we work with invited us to come and cook with them. I personally like this trend. This time it was one of our favorite sensei, Noda sensei. He works at Ritto Chugako and sits across from our desk. He is an art teacher and seems to have things in common with both Dan and I.

We were invited to come over to his house for a gyoza making session, lunch and then out to the Kusatsu aquarium with his daughters. He said he would pick us up at our house at 11:00 by car.

Right at 11:00 our doorbell rang. We opened it to find not only Noda sensei and his two daughters, but also a friend of the girls. This meant I had to run back up stairs and grab another Michigan pencil and piece of candy, because instead of two nine and ten year old kids to impress, there were now three.

We left and went directly to Noda’s house in Kusatsu. It was in an area we had never been to(meaning it wasn’t right by the train station), and it seemed nicer then many neighborhoods that we had seen up until then. Not in a fancy money way, but more in a there are stores to walk to, friendly neighbors, etc. kind of way.

We went in, were offered slippers and coffee and a seat on the tatami, while Noda finished prepping for our class. The three girls, Nao and Natsuki, his daughters, and Yuka, the friend, came and sat with us. Yuka by the way was wearing a cast on her left arm because she broke it playing dodgeball. Natsuki was present for the breaking. We proceeded to drill them with half English and half Japanese questions that we had vocabulary for: What is your favorite color?, What animals do you like?, How old are you?, etc. They giggled and hid their faces and eventually started asking us similar questions.

Then the coffees were done and Noda announced that it was time to make gyoza. He had already mixed the ground pork/beef, onion, garlic, cabbage mixture. The girls, Dan, and I surrounded the mixture and began. The girls showed us how to dip the wrapper halfway in egg, add some meat mixture, and then fold and pinch the wrapper. After formed, we placed the dumplings on a floured plate. When we finished, Noda told me that we had made 90 gyoza.

To finish the gyoza we went back to the tatami room and sat on our knees around the low table with a big electric frying pan on it. We fried up the gyoza and feasted on them, curry and rice, and salad. The girls had heard that we liked curry and rice, so they had prepared it for us. After lunch, we were suckered into a few card games before we left for the aquarium. The kids were really nice, so we obliged and played speed and some Japanese version of memory.

We then headed out to the aquarium. It was a typical outing with kids. They seemed to want to go faster and pound on the fish tanks and be kids. Pounding on the fish tanks was not corrected like it would have been in an aquarium in the states. I tried for a second to suggest that they might be scaring the fish, but they didn’t seem to care. The aquarium was filled with fish and other life from the nearby Biwako(Lake Biwa). This is the reason for our Prefecture to be linked with Michigan as sister states. Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, so naturally it would be paired with the Great Lakes State.

After we went through the aquarium, we walked out to the park by the lake and found that Yuka had packed a ball for the outing and wanted to play dodgeball. I thought this was funny, but half-heartedly played with them. I was the first out.

We headed back towards the Noda house, stopped for ice cream, and barely made it in time for Yuka to get picked up by her dad for juku. Juku is the out of school school that a lot of Japanese kids go to. I think that usually kids go after school in the evenings. This was a national holiday, thus no school today and she was still going to juku. I guess she should since her parents pay for it. After Yuka was off, Nao and Natsuki taught us how to make paper cranes and then Noda sensei took us home.

Cooking Nihongo Style

At Ritto Chugako(Junior High School), we got a new English teacher for the new term. Her name is Kageyama sensei. She is probably a little bit older than our parents, but hides it well with the nice make up application and black dyed hair. I think most people dye their hair here, making age very difficult to guess.

Anyway, Kageyama sensei is very nice and offered to teach me how to make Inari-zushi, which are these really good little rice and tofu things. I thought this was a great opportunity to learn so authentic Japanese cooking techniques, so I accepted.

I took the train to Kusatsu station where she told me that she would pick by up “by car” at 11:00. That’s how everyone talks here. I come to school by bike, I went to Kyoto by train, I will pick you up by car… After I arrived a few minutes early and saw how nice it was outside, I was second guessing my decision to commit to such a potentially long indoor activity for a day off.

Then in one hurried motion, Keiko Kageyama ran in and apologized for being so late. I looked up at the clock and saw it was 11:01. Not late by any standards with the folks I have associated with my entire life. We quickly walked down the stairs outside the station and over to her car. Her husband was standing there. We shook hands, I gave Keiko a Detroit mug, and we were off for Kageyama no uchi.

As we walked in the house, I heard a very familiar sound. It was their rice cooker playing the same song that my rice cooker plays when it is finished. I said that it was good timing and she seemed very surprised that I knew the sound of the rice cooker. That’s another thing that cracks me up. People are constantly surprised to hear I have picked up any vocabulary, knowledge of the country, skill with the chopsticks, or any other things, even after being here over eight months now. I realize that it’s a type of flattery and politeness on their end, but sometimes I feel like come on, enough with the image thing.

Getting started, I was handed an apron and told that it suited me well, by two different people(her daughter, Miho, was also there. We guessed eachothers ages- she also looked much younger than her actual 33.) Then we went in the kitchen. It was small and efficient looking compared to a western kitchen, but I have seen smaller ones to. The best thing I noticed about it, was that there was a trap door thing in the floor that she lifted up once to get an ingredient. It was like a little mini pantry in the floor. I was impressed.

So there are a few ways to go about making Inari-zushi. You can make the tofu skin wrapping or purchase the tofu skin, and make the sauce from fish broth or make the sauce from water. We made the tofu skins and made the sauce from water. She thought westerners would like it better that way, and seeing that it’s much easier, I had to agree.

We cut the pieces of fried tofu in half, split them open and turned them inside out. We made a sauce in a pan of water, sugar, salt and soy sauce and cooked the tofu skins until all the water was cooked off. There was much discussion of how to say “cook off the water”. Then was the sushi rice. The rice was ready and waiting in the cooker. We put it in a larger bowl and mixed in a sauce of vinegar, sugar and salt. I think this aids in the sticky factor. There was an option for mixing in some finely sliced tiny vegetable pieces, so we made some with and some without. (I have also seen Inari-zushi with sesame seeds mixed into the rice, so next time I make them, I might do that)

After the tofu skins were done, we spread them out on a plate. Next, we stuffed the tofu with the rice. The sticky rice was sticking more to my hands then to Keiko’s for some reason. She got a big lacquered platter out and we lined up out little army of completed Inari-zushi on the platter.

There was some left over sushi rice, so we also made maki-zushi(sushi rolls). We put cucumber, imitation crab, and tuna fish in them. She rolled one and I rolled one. Hers looked so much better than mine. But they were nice and complimented me talking about how proficient I was at sushi rolling.

Miho, meanwhile, had made a yogart and strawberry desert and Kareage(Japanese fried chicken). Then when I thought we were ready to sit down and eat, Miho busted out bacon and asked how I liked my bacon sandwiches. I was a bit confused. I played along and answer random questions for a minute, until I realized they were also making BLTs. I imagine they wanted to make me feel at home.

The feast was amazing. Keiko’s husband joined in and we ate tons of good food. He commented on my proficiency with the chopsticks. They packed up lots of food for me to take home and drove me home.